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My sleepyhead5/4/2023 ![]() So, that is a bit about my background, I look forward to sharing my treatment with you…….Īs with any new venture you are about to undertake you are full of a mixture of emotions, apprehension, excitement, anxiousness, negativity, positivity, to name but a few. In some ways, the night time is my solace as I crave for peace and quiet and on the plus side, sometimes I am so wide awake I’m like the energizer bunny on speed and can whiz through my housework in a matter of hours, all before going to work aswell as catching up on a whole box set of my favourite tv show!! It is very hard trying to describe the effects of insomnia if you have never suffered with it, imagine that you have had a bad nights sleep for a couple of days and imagine that 7 days a week, 12 months of the year, it’s no fun. I have been so tired that I’ve started to hallucinate, often hitting out at someone who I think is leaning over me that isn’t really there with my heart beating so hard in my chest I feel like I’m going to have a heart attack, at times, this has been very scary. I have been so tired that I’ve just crumpled up on my bed in a ball just sobbing my heart out just out of sheer frustration and the more I will myself to sleep, the wider awake I become. To the outside world I am probably this happy-go-lucky soul who is always smiling and cheerful no matter what, but indoors is a different story, as we often take out frustrations out on our nearest and dearest. It has been very hard living with insomnia all these years. I find it so difficult to relax and unwind, almost feeling guilty to sit down and rest as there’s always something that needs doing, my mind just never switches off, I guess like most things in life, it has just become a bad habit that needs to be broken, but I can’t do it by myself and am so thankful to Stephanie at the clinic for giving me this wonderful opportunity. Insomnia has been debilitating to me over the years, people often ask me how on earth I cope on 2hours sleep a day and the answer is I don’t know really, I can go 48 hours without any sleep at all but never ‘catch up’ on any lost sleep. Medication, prescribed and herbal, hot drinks, warm baths, plenty of fresh air and exercise during the day, lavendar, establishing fixed time for going to bed and waking up, trying to relax before bed, a comfortable sleeping environment (not too hot, cold or noisy), avoiding caffeine and nicotine, no late night eating etc etc, you name it, I have tried it, and NONE of it has worked, so you can understand why I might be a little skeptical about this course of treatment, but, with an open mind, I am willing to give ANYTHING a try!! As a result of that heartbreaking day, I suffered with depression and anxiety for quite some years before having therapy from a Psychologist which really helped…. After giving birth, I laid there in the theatre all alone cradling my perfectly formed son in my arms where I drifted off to sleep for hours, that is the last time I can remember ever having a full nights sleep. I lead a very busy life running the home, being a wife and mother, all on top of a 40hr working week, sleep should come easily!! Nineteen years ago, 24 weeks into my pregnancy, my precious son Connor was stillborn. I am 44, happily married, with a beautiful 8 year old son who is my world. I am both excited and nervous as I begin this journey into the unknown, a little skeptical, as nothing I have tried in the past has made the slightest bit of difference to aid my sleep, not even sleeping tablets and I have believed, for quite some time now, that I am beyond help.įirst, let me tell you a bit about myself. This evening I start my first session of insomnia treatment online with Stephanie Romiszewski who is a Sleep Physiologist at the Sleepyhead Clinic in Exeter. ![]() Viv’s Journey, a patient of Sleepyhead Clinic – treating her long term insomnia at Sleepyhead Clinic
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